


North by North

by Cowboy_Sneep_Dip



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Body Horror, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Sort Of, i know I'm 8 years late to this fandom but god i love them so much, thinkin bout velvet's arm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-26 14:49:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19007995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cowboy_Sneep_Dip/pseuds/Cowboy_Sneep_Dip
Summary: “N-no point?!” Eleanor stammers. “You need to take care of yourself! Even if your whole body isn’t human anymore, you need to make sure you’re keeping clean. For nothing else, our sakes.” She lifts a corner of her borrowed cloak to her nose. “Have you washed this at all since Titania?”Velvet scowls. “If you don’t want it, then freeze.”





	North by North

**Author's Note:**

> (Blows dust off my Ao3 account)
> 
> Hello everyone this is the first time I've written non-FE fic in uh, literally ever. Hope it's good! I love Veleanor and was waiting for them to be tender at each other the whole damn game.

It’s cold on the deck of the Van Eltia.

Eleanor pulls her jacket tighter around herself and emerges into the night air, into silence save for the flap of sails in the darkness and waves lapping at the wooden hull. She shivers.

It’s a cloudless night and the moon lingers high above them, a silver coin lodged in the sky somewhere about the ropes and the rigging and the sales, threatening to tip over and come crashing into the earth like a circle of molten light. It reflects on the water, its perfection tarnished by the ripple of black waves. She rests against the edge of the ship and stares off at the horizon. Stars twinkle in the far distance, like pinpricks through the bedsheet draped over the world, letting in daylight come too soon.

She sighs and turns around to rest her elbows against the railing.

The deck is empty this time of night - it usually is. Somewhere in the riggings above, one of the pirates is probably asleep in the crow’s nest. Asleep, or drinking. Down here on the deck, though, it’s still.

She comes up here a lot, in the dead of night. It’s hard to sleep, even with everything going on - there’s too much in her mind; and worse, too much churning in her stomach. She had spent her entire life in Midgand, and now to find herself at sea for weeks on end did nothing but make her queasy and nauseous. Eizen had laughed when she remarked about it, but Velvet had fortunately known a remedy for ill stomachs.

It was something she had known from treating her brother.

_Velvet_.

Eleanor sighs and faces the sea again, figuring that if she’s going to be sick, seaward is the direction. Velvet hadn’t left her thoughts since coming aboard. It was frustrating. Infuriating, even. She was horrible, saying those horrible things about the Abbey and the Shepherd, but...there was something in her Eleanor couldn’t quite reconcile with the notion of the Lord of Calamity. The softness in her eyes as she prepares Laphicet’s meals, maybe, or the gleam of a smile when she made Eleanor’s seasickness medicine. She doesn’t seem evil, not really, but small kindnesses do little to ease the discomfort of a swath of blood and death that she carves through Desolation.

“Can’t sleep?”

Speak of the devil seems an ill-fitting turn of phrase. Eleanor turns in surprise. “O-oh! Velvet! What are you doing out here?”

Velvet rests a hand on her hip. “I’m a daemon. It’s not like I need the sleep.”

A breeze cuts through the air, chilling Eleanor’s exposed skin.

“Are you cold?”

“N-no,” Eleanor tucks her face into her elbow, hoping her blush doesn’t show in the dark. She _is_ cold, but she isn’t going to let the Lord of Calamity know that. “Just, uh.” She can’t even come up with an excuse. Sleeplessness, probably, or her eyes lingering on Velvet’s bandages.

Velvet sighs. “Here.” She pulls her cloak from her shoulders. “You’ll catch your death standing in the wind like this. It wouldn’t do for Phi’s vessel to die of something so foolish.”

“O-of course,” Eleanor winces as Velvets arm brushes her shoulder, draping her cloak over her. “Thank you, Velvet.” She frowns. “Oh my goodness, Velvet, you’re bleeding!”

“Hm?” Velvet lifts her bandaged left arm and glances at it. “So?”

“So?!” Eleanor holds the cape around her shoulder and steps back from the edge of the deck. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

Velvet shrugs. “Not really. It’s something I’ve gotten used to.”

Eleanor reaches a cautious hand out to touch the worn and disheveled cloth. It’s off-white, stained from travel and rain and dirt and blood. Fresh blood is seeping through, too, patches of bright red against the tangled coils of fabric. “So it _does_ hurt.” Velvet allows her to prod the arm softly, lifting it to examine it closer.

“Sure. But I don’t mind.”

“Why is it bleeding?” Eleanor’s fingers are delicate, almost fearful. She had been on the other side of Velvet’s arm before, and the feeling of the claws raking her skin isn’t something she’s likely to soon forget.

“It does that for awhile after I use it. Therionization makes the wounds open up again.”

Eleanor makes a face and tugs at the bandages. “Velvet, have you changed these at all? They’re disgusting!”

Velvet shrugs again. “There’s no reason to. They’ll just get dirty and torn up when I need to fight again anyway.”

“N-no point?!” Eleanor stammers. “You need to take care of yourself! Even if your whole body isn’t human anymore, you need to make sure you’re keeping clean. For nothing else, our sakes.” She lifts a corner of her borrowed cloak to her nose. “Have you washed this at all since Titania?”

Velvet scowls. “If you don’t want it, then freeze.”

“No, it’s just…” Eleanor frowns. “You aren’t a human anymore, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of yourself and your things. Cleanliness is one of the first virtues instilled in Exorcists at the Abbey.”

“All the more reason to ignore it,” Velvet frowns and leans against the railing of the ship.

“At least let me clean your arm,” Eleanor pleads. Blood is soaking through the bandages in sickly red stains. “We have bandages and gels in the hold. It won’t take ten minutes.”

Velvet sighs. “Whatever it’ll take to get some peace and quiet up here.” She allows Eleanor to tug her arm lightly, pulling her away from the edge of the deck and towards the stairs down below, to the hold and the crew quarters. The Van Eltia is sprawling and sturdy, more like a floating inn than the sorts of rickety vessels Eleanor had assumed pirates used. She had expected more rot and mold, and maybe more rats. There wasn’t a trace of that. It was cleaner than some of the trainee barracks, and _that_ was downright embarrassing.

“Keeping your clothes clean can keep out all sorts of nasty diseases, and it has the added benefit of-” Eleanor frowns. “Hey, are you listening to me?”

“I know,” Velvet sighs. “I was human, remember? I just don’t care.”

Eleanor purses her lips. “Sit there and I’ll come back with supplies.”

Velvet obeys, sitting on a wooden table in one of the cabins. She crosses her legs and folds her arms over her chest impatiently.

Eleanor comes back in, already talking before she slips through the door, arms loaded to bear with a roll of cloth bandages, a few assorted gels, and a wet cloth over a bucket handle. “I’m going to clean it off, if that’s okay, then apply some medicine to keep it from opening up again so easily. I’m not sure if daemons can get infections, but we wouldn’t want to take that chance.”

Velvet grunts her assent and holds her arm out for Eleanor to take.

Eleanor takes it gingerly, resting it in her gloved palm and straightening it out. She hooks a finger around the upper hm of the wrappings and begins to tug, peeling back the bandages in their coiled layers around Velvet’s arm. The flesh takes shape underneath, charred and blackened and angry and pulsating, red streaks through the dead skin. Eleanor makes a face as more of Velvet’s bicep is revealed.

“Regretting your choice?” Velvet smiles smugly.

“No,” Eleanor protests. “But...doesn’t it hurt? I haven’t once heard you complain about it.”

“It’s a small price to pay,” Velvet brushes her off. “Besides, it’s not so bad.”

Eleanor peels the bandages down further, exposing her elbow, her forearm, her wrist, before taking her hand in her own. She works slowly and carefully, peeling the soiled cloth from around Velvet’s fingers. The hand, like the rest of the arm, is blackened, the fingers calcified into sharp claws. She rests her fingertips in Eleanor’s palm and watches her ball up the old bandages and set them aside into a pile of stained brown and white cloth.

Eleanor sets to work quietly, taking the wet cloth that she brought with her and dabbing the blood running down Velvet’s arm. Velvet winces.

“Sorry,” Eleanor says quietly. “I didn’t realize it’d hurt. Is it cold?”

“No,” Velvet shakes her head. “I can’t feel that. But touching the arm hurts.”

“I’ll try to be more careful.” Eleanor squeezes out the cloth and greyish-red water drips into her bucket. She keeps working, cradling Velvet’s hand in her own and delicately wiping blood from the blackened skin. “You really do need to take care of yourself, you know. I know you don’t need to eat, but you aren’t sleeping either.”

“I don’t need to.”

“It’s not about what you need, it’s about things that can make you more comfortable,” Eleanor chastises, wringing out more blood-water. “You shouldn’t lose a grip on all the things that make you...the things that humans do.”

Velvet frowns.

Eleanor finishes washing her arm and dabs it dry with a towel. Blood still seeps from from spots, but for the most part, the dried red and brown has been washed away. She starts applying a gel to Velvet’s hand, sandwiching it in between her own to rub the thick liquid into her skin. It smells like fruit.

“Is that really necessary?” Velvet asks.

“It’ll help stop the bleeding,” Eleanor explains. “I’m not sure if you need to worry about moisturizing, but it can help with that too. It should help the pain, as well. They’re remarkable little medicines, aren’t they?”

“We should save them for people who need them.”

Eleanor shakes her head and lathers the gel into the back of Velvet’s hand. She uses a second on her forearm, and then another on her elbow and the bits of blackened flesh above. “There. Doesn’t that feel better?”

Velvet stretches her arm, clenches and unclenches her fist. It _does_ feel better, at least a little bit. She can’t feel much with that arm, but the gels have a slight tingling sensation that softens the aching pain.

“Now to just wrap it back up,” Eleanor says, picking up her fresh roll of bandages. She starts with Velvet’s index finger and wraps the roll around each finger, and then her palm. It’s neater than when Velvet does it herself, neat concentric layers rather than haphazard wrapping. Eleanor cradles her wrist in her hand while she works, finishing up by wrapping up the skin above Velvet’s elbow and tearing off the bandage end. “All done.” She holds Velvet’s hand in hers, turning it palm up.

Velvet pulls hand hand back, letting her fingers brush over Eleanor’s for a moment, a lingering touch that would be warm if she could feel it. She cracks her knuckles and rolls her fingers.

“Is the tightness good?” Eleanor asks, pulling back. “I know it’s hard to tell when you can’t feel it. Can you move okay?”

“It’s fine,” Velvet says, almost smiling. She seems impressed, even, and tests bending her elbow.

“There. You’re free to go, then,” Eleanor nods. “And if you need help changing it in the future, feel free to ask. I’d rather take the time to do it than-”

“Yeah, yeah,” Velvet waves her hand and stands up. “I’ll call you, okay?”

Eleanor beams. “Yeah.”

Velvet stops at the door on the way out. “Hey, Eleanor.” She rests against the doorframe. “Thanks.”

Eleanor smiles.

And then she’s alone again, in the bowels of the ship, her gaze lingering on the pile of discarded bandages on the table and the bucket of grey water. She sighs.

And then widens her eyes.

“W-wait! Velvet, I still have your cloak!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hi or talk to me about words at http://lucisevofficial.tumblr.com!


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